Sorry for the delay guys. Wrapping up some work before the year is out.
Also, I have a bigger problem at the moment. I’ve only done that first session. Truth is, the blister I got hasn’t healed yet (this makes the 4th week I think?), so I’m getting checked for diabetes (which runs in our family). At first I started to panic, because I wasn’t sure if it was necrosis. A bit more info:
I was so feddup of delaying starting my PE that I went into my first session off of memory, instead of reviewing my notes, so I had forgotten the cues to look for to let me know that I might be overheating. I thought that I was fine since I was using a thermocouple to monitor temps.
In retrospect, I experienced a few hotspots and tried to endure it, rather than just move the US head along. In rereading my notes, I realized that ideally, it should feel uncomfortably hot but bearable for a long time, whereas while I was doing that first session off of memory, things felt a bit too hot at times and I thought that’s the way it was supposed to be - while drawing reassurance from the thermocouple reading being in the right range.
Once I reviewed my notes, I felt sooooo stupid about this, and I started panicking, wondering whether I cooked part of my penis. I don’t think it’s necrosis though for several reasons: the area was forming a scab, it hasn’t gotten discolored, it hasn’t gotten more painful, it has showed signs of healing, it’s not numb/swollen, etc and I think those things would have happened by now (approaching 4 weeks).
Why hasn’t it healed then? My hypotheses:
As I said, diabetes runs in our family, so I’m going to get that checked
Also, I wasn’t practicing proper wound care at first, so it kept rubbing on my underwear, got infected a few times (I know because it produced a little pus here and there). I also wasn’t using any covering/plasters, so the wound was exposed and sometimes sticking to my underwear. I also masturbated a few times (kind of an addiction) which was no doubt was tramautic to the tissue. And finally, I started using neosporin in the open wound to prevent the dressing (i.e. covering) from sticking to it (which will cause more damage when removing) and to kill any bacteria. The problem I later discovered with neosporin is that the antibiotic ingredient kills bacteria in the wound, including good strains. I got curious about whether this was delaying healing and upon researching, I found that when vaseline was compared to neosporin, the vaseline helped promote faster recovery. Also, when researchers carefully added certain strains of bacteria to open wounds, they healed faster. So healing isn’t just an inside out process, but healthy bacteria in the wound also helps. They tested this in both rat and human models.
So now I’m practicing better care, trying not to masturbate and gonna do that sugar test. I’m changing my dressing twice a day, rinsing it with running water, then wiping/dabbing it gently with a light saline solution to sterilize, adding a bit of vaseline, then covering it with a new, sterile dressing and taping it up.
I’m still anxious about this because it’s not supposed to take this long to heal, but it’s in the last 3-4 days only that I’ve started doing the right things, and I think I’m seeing some small signs of progress. One setback is that I did my first weightlifing workout in a long time yesterday and today I’m a bit sick (slight sore throat, and feel like I’m coming down with the cold/flu). So my immunity seems weak overall, and now that my body is fighting this cold/flu, I feel like it’s not going to help my wound situation.
Sigh, will keep you all updated. Hopefully this heals and I didn’t cause real damage to my penis. Already have a lie crafted to tell the doctor if I go in (vs - I was trying to lenghten my penis and pointed a US device at it, lol…I would feel too embarrassed). But consider this near accident a warning and a reminder to do things safely, and right. I know I’m not playing around next time.